Not everyone can show a countdown to an event in their multimedia ads yet. If you can't, don't worry—it's coming soon!
Countdown customizers let you easily add a countdown — by day, hour, and then minute — to an event in expanded text ads, dynamic search ads, responsive search ads, and multimedia ads. The countdown, which automatically updates as the event draws nearer, is eye-catching and gives potential customers greater incentive to click your ad.
For example, you can use a countdown to draw attention to a sale that is ending:
...or to promote an upcoming event:
Ads with countdowns only run while the countdown is relevant — they won't start running until a specific day and time that you set, and they'll stop running when the countdown timer expires.
After February 1, 2023, you will no longer be able to create new or edit existing expanded text ads. For more information, see About responsive search ads.
You can also create a countdown manually, either by typing directly in the Create ad input boxes, by using a bulk upload spreadsheet, or by using Microsoft Advertising Editor.
To make sure you enter it correctly, let's look at the components of a countdown's syntax using the below examples for expanded text ads and responsive search ads/multimedia ads:
Expanded text ads
After February 1, 2023, you will no longer be able to create new or edit existing expanded text ads. For more information, see About responsive search ads.
{=COUNTDOWN("2018/02/17 00:00:00","en-us",3)}
Component | What you need to know |
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{ ... } | Mandatory. The entire countdown syntax must be within a pair of braces (also called curly brackets). |
=COUNTDOWN | Mandatory. This component determines whether the countdown is based on the ad viewer's local time zone or on your account's time zone. The possible values are "=COUNTDOWN" (the ad viewer's local time zone) or "=GLOBAL_COUNTDOWN" (your account's time zone). |
( ... ) |
Mandatory. The other components of the syntax must be within a pair of parentheses. Note: Individual components within the parentheses must be separated by commas. |
"2018/02/17 00:00:00" | This is the countdown end date and time (must be within a pair of double quotation marks). The date is mandatory, but the time is optional. If you do not specify the time, it will default to midnight (00:00:00) at the very beginning of the date you specified. |
"en-us" |
This is the language the countdown will appear in (must be within a pair of double quotation marks). For example, "3 days", "3 jours", or "3 Tage"). This component is only mandatory if you define how many days before the countdown end date/time you want the ad to start running (see next component). If you do not specify the language, it will default to English. |
3 | Optional. This is how many days before the countdown end date/time you want the ad to start running (the maximum is 999). If you do not specify the number of days, it will default to 5. |
Responsive search ads and multimedia ads
{COUNTDOWN(2021-12-12 11:59:59,5)}
Component | What you need to know |
---|---|
{ ... } | Mandatory. The entire countdown syntax must be within a pair of braces (also called curly brackets). |
COUNTDOWN | Mandatory. This component determines whether the countdown is based on the ad viewer's local time zone or on your account's time zone. The possible values are "COUNTDOWN" (the ad viewer's local time zone) or "GLOBAL_COUNTDOWN" (your account's time zone). |
( ... ) |
Mandatory. The other components of the syntax must be within a pair of parentheses. Note: Individual components within the parentheses must be separated by commas. |
2021-12-12 11:59:59 | This is the countdown end date and time. The date is mandatory, but the time is optional. If you do not specify the time, it will default to midnight (00:00:00) at the very beginning of the date you specified. |
5 | Optional. This is how many days before the countdown end date/time you want the ad to start running (the maximum is 999). If you do not specify the number of days, it will default to 5. |
Let's say you're going to have a big online sale. You pick 12:00 AM on February 17 as your Countdown ends date/time, enter 3 for Countdown starts, and base the date/time on the ad viewer's time zone. Here's when your ad would run and examples of how it would look:
With the countdown syntax, this ad's Title Part 2 would look like this when you create it: "Sale ends in {=COUNTDOWN("2018/02/17 00:00:00","en-us",3)}!".
After an ad's countdown ends, the ad will stop running but will retain the status Enabled. You can make the ad start running again by either:
The countdown syntax will always use a specified number of characters, depending on the language:
Keep in mind that your text will be too long if the countdown syntax makes it exceed the maximum character length. Here are some examples:
Don't have all of the ads in an ad group use countdowns |
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Having a countdown in an ad means that the ad won't start running until a certain date and time, and then will stop running a few days later. If all of the ads in an ad group use countdowns, it's easy to end up having no ads running for some periods of time. To ensure that you always have ads running, we recommend having at least one ad without a countdown in each ad group. |
Don't have multiple countdowns in a single ad if they have different date ranges |
It is possible to have more than one countdown in an ad. However, if they are based on different time ranges, the ad will only appear when the two time ranges overlap. We recommend avoiding this scenario. |
Choose the right time zone setting |
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